Misconceptions
by Faygo-Cytosis
Summary: "He'd never even suspected anything this whole time, and now he finds out that this uncouth, senseless brute shared the same physical sex as his beloved Nami-swan and Robin-chwan! What the hell!" - In which Sanji learns a very interesting secret about their resident swordsman.


**AN: **This is only my second One Piece fic, and I hope y'all will enjoy it. The idea came to me after seeing this wonderful picture (prinzart . tumblr post/55057600239) by the lovely Prinzart on Tumblr. You guys should totally go check her out! Her One Piece art is amazing, and so is everything else!

**Warnings: **Well, swearing obviously, when you consider who's involved. Some very, _very _mild transphobia (more being in shock over the situation than anything else), and transgenderism (if that bothers you).

* * *

Sanji wasn't sure what he'd been expecting today, but this certainly wasn't it.

The day had started simple enough. He'd gotten up before the crew to make breakfast, as usual. The girls had taken advantage of the nice weather to get a bit of sun, as they often did. And there were the usual shenanigans from the male members of their crew, along with the constant fights with Zoro. All in all, it was an ordinary day, or as ordinary as they got with Straw Hat crew.

And so he was totally unprepared for the situation he was faced with now.

He'd come down to the men's quarters to drag Zoro's tardy ass up for lunch and had been greeted by the sight of the green-haired swordsman pulling off his shirt. He wouldn't have found anything strange by that (he'd seen Luffy and Franky naked more times than he'd like to admit), except for the fact that Zoro's body didn't look quite…right.

At first he thought that the bandages wrapped around Zoro's chest were due to some sort of injury. That in itself wasn't all that unusual. But it wasn't until Zoro turned around to face him with an irritated look on his face that Sanji understood that the bandages served an altogether different purpose.

If he wasn't mistaken, and he really wasn't sure about anything at this point, there was the barely noticeable swell of _breasts_ under those bandages.

He didn't even realize that he was staring until Zoro cleared his (_her?_) throat rather loudly. "Oi. Are you just gonna stand gaping like an idiot or are you going to say something?" Sanji would have normally lashed out at that, but he was having a hard time processing what he was seeing and it seemed like Zoro wasn't keen on putting a shirt on any time soon.

After a few false starts, the dazed cook was finally able to get the words out. "You're a…woman…?"

Zoro, for his part, sighed noisily and rolled his eyes. "Well, looks like the secret's out now. Great."

And just like that, Zoro confirmed it. No trying to deny it, no bullshitting. The swordsman didn't even look angry or embarrassed about it. Just…resigned.

"Holy shit! You've been hiding this the whole time?! How- _Why?!" _

He'd seen men behaving as women. Hell, a whole _fucking island of them_. But never had he seen a woman posing as a man, and never in a way that had been able to fool him like this. He'd never even suspected anything this whole time, and now he finds out that this uncouth, senseless _brute _shared the same physical sex as his beloved Nami-swan and Robin-chwan?! _What the hell?!_

The swordsman raised his hand to scratch the back of his head in a gesture that was so _Zoro _that it made this whole situation seem that much more surreal. "I haven't exactly been hiding it from you, idiot. I seriously thought you knew. Everyone else does."

The cook's jaw dropped. "You mean to tell me that I'm the last person to figure this out? Why didn't you just tell me!"

"Because I didn't want you to freak out on me like you're doing right now! Besides, what fucking difference does it make? Despite what my body might make you think, I'm still a man."

Sanji finally managed to regain control of himself after gawking like an idiot all this time, but he had no idea what to think about this whole situation. "Have you always, you know, been like…" He gestured vaguely at Zoro, determined to keep his eyes focused on the swordsman's face. Or, failing that, at least keep them away from his chest.

"What? A woman that thinks she can play at being a man?" He could practically hear the sneer in Zoro's voice.

"No! That's not what I meant!" Shit, he'd only just found this out and he was already fucking it up! "Just- When did you decide to start dressing like a man?"

If anything, Zoro's expression darkened. "I _think _what you're trying to say is when did I stop pretending to be something I wasn't. And not that it's any of your damned business, but I made that decision after a friend of mine died."

Now the cook's curiosity was piqued. This sounded a bit familiar. "Is this the same friend that Wado belonged too? The girl who's dream that you fight for?"

Zoro snorted. "Hey, it's my dream too, jackass. And yeah, that's her." He seemed to think about something for a moment before giving up and running a hand through his cropped hair in a gesture that Sanji had come to recognize as one of irritation or frustration. "She had this stupid notion in her head before she died that she would never be able to achieve the title of World's Greatest Swordsman because she was a woman. Thought that being born female made her weaker. I'd finally managed to convince her that that was all bullshit but," he shrugged, "you can see how things turned out."

Sanji winced. "But…her being a woman had nothing to do with it. That didn't automatically make her weaker than someone else."

Zoro looked like he wanted to say something like that, but seemed to change his mind. "I know that. And on some level, she knew that too. But it didn't help that she grew up hearing things like that from people. From what she told me, even her old man told her something like that. And I decided right then that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life listening to that sort of bullshit. All those guys out there saying things like 'Oh, you're pretty good for a girl!', or 'You hit hard, for a woman'. What good would it do to achieve something so great, only to have a bunch of people try and argue that all my opponents went easy on me, or implying that I must have slept with them to get where I was?" Then he shrugged. "Besides, I never quite felt right as a woman to begin with. That just wasn't me. I probably wouldn't have been such an angry kid if I'd figured that out sooner."

Sanji found that he really couldn't argue with any of that. To have your achievements questioned or mocked like just because of your gender? Who would want to live like that? And about not feeling right with the gender assigned to you at birth? He'd sort of come to understand that after Kamabakka Kingdom (even if he'd never admit that to another living soul). So really, all of that made sense to him, in some way. There was just one thing that he couldn't wrap his head around.

"Wait, you said that everyone else knows about this? How? And why didn't you tell _me_?"

There went Zoro's hand ruffling through his hair again. "I didn't exactly _tell _them anything. They all just sort of figured it out on their own. Usopp and Franky found out the same way you did." Usopp had been surprisingly understanding about whole thing, while Franky had just given him a rather naughty wink and offered to craft him a certain mechanical bit of anatomy if he ever wanted to be a little more 'authentic'. He'd let that one go because Franky was just being, well, Franky.

"Chopper found out because he's the doctor and I can't exactly _hide _that sort of thing when getting my chest sewn up, the witch found out because I had to ask someone about certain…things, and Chopper wasn't around yet. And Luffy, Robin, and Brook just somehow knew."

Okay, Robin he could understand, and Brook? But Luffy… Well, their captain did tend to get perceptive at the weirdest of times. He decided to just let that one go.

"Okay. So they all found out. But you still didn't think to tell me about it?"

Zoro snorted loudly in disbelief. "What, so you could go around fawning all over the damn place like you do with every other woman on the planet?"

Sanji sputtered. "What?! Like hell I would do that, shit-for-brains!"

The swordsman's response was to cross his arms and arch an eyebrow. "Oh really? And if I'd have told you, would you have kept sparring with me like usual? Or would you suddenly stop because of your 'inability to hit a woman'."

That brought Sanji up short. "I…" Would he have fought and bickered with Zoro all this time if he had known that? As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he didn't think he would have. And the look on Zoro's face said that he knew that.

"I thought so. You know, as much as you say you love women, you sure do know how to make them feel like shit."

"What the fuck do you mean by that?!"

Zoro made a soft 'tch' sound. "Do you really think women want men to fight all their battles for them? To have men bend over backwards to do every little thing for them as if they couldn't do it themselves?" His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Do you really think women want men to refuse to fight them for no other reason than the fact that they are women?"

Sanji was floored. He'd never thought of it like that. But Zoro wasn't done quite yet.

"After seeing you act like that, do you really think that I'd want to come out and tell you something like that if I didn't have to? Especially since it doesn't make a damn bit of difference? Like I said, physically I might be female, and I can't deny that. But that doesn't change the fact that I am, and always have been, a man."

At this point, Sanji was pretty sure he was staring again. And this time it was because of Zoro's words and nothing else. "I…I guess I can understand that."

"Good." Still, it seemed that Zoro was waiting for something. His expression was oddly pinched, and his shoulders were tense. Sanji couldn't figure it out at first, but when it hit him he was stunned. Zoro was waiting on _him_. Waiting to see where he'd take it from here. To see if he would accept him.

And as weird as all of this was to Sanji, as confusing and _crazy _this all was, he found that the only thing about it that actually bothered him was the fact that Zoro hadn't felt that he could tell him. And, honestly, he had given Zoro every reason to feel that way. The fact that his gender and body didn't match up didn't actually freak him out as much as he'd thought it would. Kamabakka had helped with that (another thing that he'd never admit to), but there was also the fact that Zoro had always been so undeniably _male_ that to suddenly think any different of him would be impossible. With that realization Sanji found himself relaxing, and even smiling.

"Calm down, moss-head. As far as I'm concerned, this doesn't change anything. You've shown more balls than anyone else I've ever met, whether you've actually got a pair or not. As much as it pains me to say it, you're probably the manliest man I know, and that's coming from a guy that grew up on a ship full of sweaty, disgusting pigs." Zoro smirked at that, but it still seemed that he wasn't entirely convinced. With a grimace, Sanji realized what else was still bugging him.

"…and I promise to try and stop putting women up on a pedestal."

The smile that broke out on Zoro's face was worth it. The tenseness left his shoulders and it seemed he was back to his usual cocky self. The same old Zoro. And really, Sanji couldn't see how he could think of him any other way.

"Good. Now, you came down her because there's food, right? There a chance that there's anything left?"

As they headed for the kitchen, Sanji shook his head with a laugh. "Only if those animals haven't eaten all of it yet." Right as they reached the door he noticed something. "Hey. Why the hell are you still shirtless?"

Zoro grinned at him. "Everyone knows now, so why the fuck not?"


End file.
